The BrOvED programme aims to develop and evaluate assays for early detection of breast or ovarian cancer. The blood based assays can be based on cell free DNA (cfDNA), proteins, T-cell repertoire and TEPs, methylation profiles or microRNA.
The BrOvED Programme Aims
- Establish a resource of serial blood samples, from a national study of carriers of breast and ovarian cancer gene variants (EMBRACE).
- Establish and follow-up a cohort (EMBED) of women at high risk of breast cancer, with serial blood samples, through the breast screening programme.
- Develop blood-based assays to detect early-stage breast and ovarian cancers
- Study the dynamics of ctDNA levels months and years prior to cancer diagnosis
- Assess the performance of early detection assays in women who present with symptoms or abnormal findings that indicate a suspicion of breast or ovarian cancer;
- Develop concepts and protocols for future interventional trials to implement tests for earlier diagnosis of
cancer in women at high risk or with suspected symptoms.
BrOvED Research questions
- How many additional early-stage cancers could be detected with assays that are 10x more sensitive than current state-of-the-art?
- What is the sensitivity and positive predictive value (PPV) for the detection of breast and ovarian cancer (including early-stage disease) using cost-effective scalable assays?
- What is the earliest time-point before a cancer diagnosis that ctDNA can be detected in plasma, and what are time-scales for increases in ctDNA levels prior to cancer diagnosis?
The BrOvEd programme is funded by Cancer Research UK and being conducted in collaboration with Nitzan Rosenfeld (QUML) and Marc Tischkowitz (Department of Medical Genetics).
